Author: Liam Otten

William J. Maxwell has been installed as the inaugural Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. A lecture and reception to celebrate his appointment were held recently in Whittemore House.

This fall, the Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis will present “Making Their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection.” Spanning nearly eight decades and featuring nearly 70 artists, the survey places leading contemporary practitioners in dialogue with an earlier generation of artists whose work anticipated current discussions of figuration and abstraction as well as identity and power.

Six projects created by Sam Fox School faculty, students and alumni are featured in the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale and associated exhibitions.

Rising WashU junior Madison Yue has won a prestigious Peter Roth Internship from the Paley Center for Media in New York.

Associate Professor Chandler Ahrens has been named chair of graduate architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. The new role took effect July 1. 

Sandra Geary, a teacher of applied music and collaborative pianist in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, died June 23 following a short illness. She was 59.

James Poag, a professor emeritus and former chair of the Department in Germanic Languages and Literatures in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died May 25. He was 90.

Kahan Chavda, BSBME ’16, co-founder of Inversa, a company pioneering the field of ethically harvested leathers, workshops with Sam Fox School students on how engineering and fashion design can support endangered ecosystems.

Rebecca Messbarger, professor of Italian in Arts & Sciences, has published a chapter titled “Popes, the Body, Medicine, and the Cult of Saints after Trent” as part of “The Cambridge History of the Papacy, Volume III: Civil Society.”

Jonathan Judaken was installed as the Gloria M. Goldstein Professor of Jewish History & Thought in Arts & Sciences in April.